Prior art exercise equipment requires repetitive motions that require little or no mental concentration. As a result, exercising using prior art machines can be boring, resulting in the exerciser or user failing to achieve his or her goals.
Although much work has been done in the field of exercise equipment and, particularly aerobic exercise equipment, prior art devices have not produced exercise equipment which continuously and instantaneously stimulates the exerciser to achieve his or her goals in real time. Certain prior art exercise equipment has attempted to pace the exerciser with heart rate and heart rate acceleration. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,518,985--Quinton and, more recent work, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,001,632 and 5,362,069, both naming Justin Hall-Tipping as the inventor. However, these patent disclosures are directed to exercise machines which are controlled in response to the heart rate of the exerciser. It is well known that the heart rate of the exerciser significantly lags the physical activity of the exerciser, there is a delay both in accelerating to an increased heart rate during increasing physical activity and in deceleration of the heart rate upon slowing of the physical activity. These are significant delays in real time which would prevent real time pacing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,411--Rackman et al. disclose an exercise machine system wherein noise is mixed with a TV signal if the exercise level drops below a preset level. Rackman et al. are directed to attempts at achieving at instantaneous biofeedback and maintenance of a desired exercise level by a total loss of signal being displayed on a TV receiver. Rackman et al. attempt to "punish" a cyclist by destroying a video image displayed on the a TV screen by injecting noise. Rackman et al. do not disclose a system wherein the user or exerciser is continually paced, nor do they disclose a system wherein the pacing of the user may be updated to continually advance the exerciser both by increasing the level of activity as well as instantaneously maintaining the interest of the user.